Imaging the cardiovascular system in its earliest stages of development is a feat that could provide researchers unequivocal knowledge into the how the heart forms. Until now, the developmental dynamics of the heart have been well theorized and modeled, though very little experimental visual evidence exists to better explain how it forms and why.

Metin Akay has been tasked with leading the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering’s new Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Akay, officially designated as founding chair at BioHouston’s Breakfast Forum Aug. 21, will use his nearly two decades experience to establish the first new department at the college in more than 35 years.

Senior Projects Pack Benefit, FunJune 9, 2009Students at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering leave their mark in many ways throughout their academic career. They make the...

Students at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering leave their mark in many ways throughout their academic career. They make the dean’s list, participate in undergraduate research and tutor those in need.

But for many, one of the most significant impressions made on both their instructors and themselves happens in one of the last classes required before completing the course work necessary to earn their degrees—senior capstone design.

The University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering has opened a laboratory devoted to enhancing undergraduate education through hands-on instruction in bioanalytics.

The Biomedical Engineering Bioanalytics Undergraduate Laboratory, which officially opened in the fall, allows students to learn biophysical laws governing cell behavior to better understand how RNA, DNA and protein are regulated.

A device being developed by a team of researchers from the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering could make it unnecessary for more than 23 million diabetics to submit to daily finger pricks to test glucose levels in their blood.

The researchers received a three-year, nearly $400,000 National Science Foundation grant this month to explore the development of the implantable device, designed to use optical sensing to continuously monitor glucose levels.

Inside the Cullen College’s Biomedical Engineering Research Core Laboratory is a one-of-a-kind instrument that could help scientists better understand how radiation from low-level lasers affects cellular processes.

Yet the inventors of this machine are not seasoned researchers, but rather two University of Houston undergraduate students working to fulfill the last year of requirements for their biomedical engineering degrees.

Dominique Lim spent the better part of her life in a country where diseases that modern medicine have made practically unheard of are commonplace.

In her native Philippines, a country with a population soaring past 90 million in an area slightly larger than the state of Arizona, lack of healthcare and ill-equipped hospitals make ailments such as typhoid and tetanus more prominent.

Michael Leba spent this past summer engrossed in the beginnings of a research project that may one-day aid diabetics.

Only last month did the senior biomedical engineering major finish the 10-week stint in the University of Houston’s Biomedical Optics Laboratory where he devoted hours to determining whether there is a direct correlation between cornea thickness and changes in glucose concentrations.

Two engineering organizations earlier this year presented awards to Kirill V. Larin, assistant professor of biomedical and mechanical engineering, for achievements in his biomedical optics and imaging research.

The 2008 Outstanding Young Scientist Award was presented to Larin in February by the Houston Society for Engineering in Medicine and Biology. The award recognized him for significant success in his first five years of research.

The University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering has won a $600,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to provide scholarships for students in the college’s accelerated B.S. to graduate degree program.

A professor with the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering is developing an imaging device that could increase the success of patients attempting to have children through in vitro fertilization.

Junior Austin Head spends 11 weeks investigating nanotechnology through the NanoJapan Program

It is not uncommon for undergraduate engineering students to seek out research opportunities over summer break, nor is it unusual for them to take a few weeks to travel overseas. This summer, Austin Head, a junior biomedical engineering major with the Cullen College of Engineering, got to do both through the NSF-funded NanoJapan Program.

For as long as the U.S. Navy has had scuba divers, submarines and airplane pilots, it has had to deal with the effects of decompression sickness. This condition, which affects those who experience sudden, drastic changes in the air or water pressure surrounding their bodies, can cause anything from joint pain—better known as the bends—to seizure, stroke, coma, and, in the most extreme cases, death.